What is New
In this section we describe the new functionality of each version. This is not the complete technical changelog, but meant for people using the module to get an overview.
Version 5.00
The version 5.00 is optimized to be used as Extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and also to be used with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online. We decided to get rid of some deprecated fields and changed the names of the buffer tables to be consistent through all Dynamics versions.
The main changes are:
- Buffer tables
- Changed table names
- Removed some deprecated fields
- System tables
- Removed deprecated fields
- Converters
- Deprecated the NAV converter in favor of:
- New PREPARE converter
- New CHECK converter
- New PROCESS converter
- The EDIFACT converter has now support for non standard conform decimal separators
- Deprecated the NAV converter in favor of:
- Improved UI on the business transactions
- Improved UI experience in the web client of Dynamics
- Support for action groups in workflow module / business transactions
- In most of the times the post-processing logic is no longer required. It is hidden as an advanced property from new users
- New communication channel to communicate with a new managed data transfer platform, which you can get access to as Anveo user
- Easier installation process (QuickInstall is not required anymore)
- Initial support for quick demo environment setup
Buffer Tables
We have used the new release to get rid of some rarely used fields. We’ve also removed the Sell-to, Bill-to and Ship-to fields as they are redundant to the information that can be stored in the table ANVEDI Contact/Address. The documentation list all deprecated fields: Buffer Tables.
If you upgrade a system using the FOB-Version of the module, you can keep the old buffer tables, without changing the mappings. If you upgrade to extensions you could add the deprecated fields back using a custom extension, if required.
System Tables
We’ve removed a few fields from the system tables that were used internally. If you upgrade from version 4 of the module you can import the tables and delete the fields. If you want to update from older version, upgrade to version 4 first.
Converters
In the past we used one common converter for all internal processing logic. This converter was called NAV converter. Since the term NAV is no longer used by Microsoft in new versions and we have found that it is better for the structure of the mappings to clearly delineate these into different functions, we have introduced three new converters:
- PREPARE
- CHECK
- PROCESS
The idea is to clearly define the function of the mapping and enforce best practices to separate the data preparation, the validation of the data and the processing of the data. You can learn more in the chapter of the converters.
Business Transactions
We have changed the way you can enter the actions for a specific Business Transaction Type and now support multiple actions, which are executed one after another until one fails. If you reset the failed processing step the module will start the first action again. This allows you to re-run prepare mappings and to simplify the workflow process. Also we have promoted the property to start a sub-process to be on the first level of any data table in the mappings, making it much easier to setup complex scenarios with multiple business transaction types.
Web Client
We improved the user experience in the web clients of the different Dynamics versions. We highly appreciate your feedback where we can still improve the user interface to make using the module as easy as possible.
Workflow
With Anveo EDI Connect version 5.00 we have introduced a new simplified workflow system to process the data. The new system is based on the business transactions and should be easier to understand for new users of the module. The “old” post-processings are still available, but are now hidden as advanced properties in favor of the new model. There are still scenarios, where the old logic provides more flexibility and it won’t be removed from the module, but in most cases the new model will be easier to setup and understand.
Service Based Communication
Since access to the local file system is not possible in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online, we have implemented a new Web service interface that can communicate with third-party services. We will soon announce a cooperation that will allow you to send and retrieve files in protocols that were not directly supported before, such as X.400 and AS/2, via an online service.
Installation
Anveo EDI Connect is now fully available as an Business Central Extension and via AppSource.
With Anveo EDI Connect 5.00 we tried to fully embed most of the used resources and install them automatically. In the Business Central Extension this is done in the extension installation process, for older version you will be asked to run the installation when you open the EDI Setup page. The QuickInstall.anv file required in older versions of the module is not required anymore.
Demo System
We have embedded a demo system into the module. After the installation you can install example mappings via the EDI Setup page or the quick links, depending on the Dynamics version. This demo environment will be improved with the next updates. We plan to make it as easy as possible to have a running test system to either demonstrate or test the module.
Version 4.00
Anveo EDI Connect 4.00 has a lot of improvements and new features.
User experience
Business Transactions
We want to make it as easy as possible for the end-user to find his transaction data, to see the status and to navigate to the required information in the system. Previous to version 4 there was the logging, where the end-user could find each step of the processing logic, but this is more technical than required by many users. For that reason we decided to add the new concept of Business Transactions.
The overall idea is to represent the state of a document in a single line, a Business Transaction. Each of these transactions belong to a new setup table, the Business Transaction Type. The Business Transaction Type defines what general processes exists and the entry points. We discuss the details in the chapter Business Transactions.
UI Improvements
There are several small changes to improve the usability. For example, we’ve updated the FactBox in the EDI Document to represent the information better that is required by the end-user. We also but some work in making it easier to work with the new browser based clients in all versions. We will see further improvements on that topic with the next release.
Jobs (“Zero-coding”)
With the business transactions we’ve added a way to export data without the need to add fields to track whether it was already exported. In the past you had to add boolean flags to all outgoing documents, tracking whether it has to be exported and if there was already an export. The new functionality can take care of that in a lot of scenarios. Giving you the opportunity to setup standard EDI workflows without a single line of coding or modifications to the base objects of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017. We discuss the details in the chapter Business Transactions.
Mapping Setup
There are a lot of small changes and improvements to the mapping setup. One big change is only sometimes noticeable, we changed the way SourceExpr and DestExpr are handled to a fully typed engine. This should improve the performance and stability and make the system more robust to language changes.
General Functionality
Table Data Filtering
We’ve changed the way you access post-processing data. There is a new property Data View, which allows you to filter the record to all records of the table, the post-processing record, the business transaction record or a record by a named filter. Selecting
Named Table View will give you access to the named table view field, like before. This change is backward compatible. On upgrades we will set the new property to Named Table View and keep the table view name.
Table Limit
If you read data from a table there is a new advanced property called Limit Count. Setting this property to True will give you the option to limit the count of records that should be read.
Create Linked Documents
The property Master Table was renamed to Create Linked Documents. You should set this to True whenever you want to link other tables to this instance or when you want to be able to navigate from the
Business Transaction or EDI Processing Queue to the record.
Link Errors to Tables
There is a new property Register Errors On Instance which enabled that all following errors are linked to this table instance.
Init Functions for Temp Tables
On temporary tables you can now specify a function which returns an ANVEDI Variant that holds a RecordRef that is used as the initial values. This is a very advanced topic and only needed in special cases.
Post-processings
There are new post-processing types to support the new Business Transactions.
Build-in functions
There are a lot of new build-in functions. We will only discuss one of them, but there is a new section build-in functions in the manual.
There are new build-in functions to compare to values to each other. This will allow you to use lines of type Conditional to do basic conditional branches. If you try to compare two different data types the second one will be casted to the first one. With these new function you do not need to use the “second table” workaround for IF statements anymore.
Mapping Transport / Import and Exports
We replaced the old import and export functionality for mapping data. You can import old backups with the new systems and the old report is still shipped with the module, but deprecated.
The new functionality allows you to specify in much more granularity what you want to export. On imports you can see the data contained in the backup and decide what to import. You can find more details under Backup and Transport.
Error Handling
We improved the build-in functions that you can use, for example, from check mappings. There are three new command types:
- INFO
- WARNING
- DEBUG
Which will allow you to create log entries. All log commands, including the existing ERROR, now support multiple placeholders to use values from the mapping inside the error message. You can also specify an Error Code, which you can use to access the log information. It is now also possible to explicitly specify the table the error should be assigned to.
Acceptable Errors
We’ve also introduced a new error type, that will break the processing, but can be accepted by the end-user. This allows you to define checks that will break the processing, but can be marked as accepted/ignored by the end-user.
Object Names
We’ve prefixed a lot of the objects with “ANVEDI” to prevent name clashes with other modules. To be backward compatible this does affect most, but not all object names. We will streamline the names in the “Extension” version with the next release. Anveo EDI Connect will be available as extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central only. We will not support older Dynamics version as an NAV Extension.
Parallel Processing
In general we do not recommend the processing of several EDI processes at the same time. With the new release we’ve tried to limit the time we are locking our own system tables, making it possible to run multiple processes at the same time. All tables used inside the mappings will still be a limiting factor. If you can, we still recommend to avoid parallel processings.
Mapping Versioning Support
With the new available enterprise versions of the module, we have added support for versioning of mappings. There are two modes available a simple one and a revision safe one, where a mapping that was once executed cannot be modified anymore. We’ve added a section Mapping Versioning, where you can find more information. If you want to use the new functionality you’ll have to get a new license, feel free to contact our partner team to get more information.
Converter Changes
There were some changes to the base module that will affect all mappings. We strongly recommend that you test all your mappings after upgrading before executing the upgrade in a live system.
In the following sections we will list the changes to specific converters.
EDIFACT/X12
We’ve tried to improve the error messages inside the converter. We also changed the behaviour of loops, if they have a minimum repeat set. We recommend setting a min repeat to all tables inside an EDIFACT mapping, where it makes sense. It will result in processing the segments and not only checking them, which will improve the performance and error messages.
We’ve updated the EDIFACT importer, please download the standards with the new downloader. As we fixed some issues it makes sense to remove already imported standards and import them again, before building new mappings.
There is a new function EDIFACT.SKIPSEGMENTS which you can use, if you want to skip data without processing it, up to a known element.
XML
There is a breaking change in the XML converter, if you’re using namespaces on imports. We will now use the namespace information to identify import elements. This required all lines to have the correct namespace information set. The benefit is that you can process files with different prefixes, as they are now considered equal.
The other change is that an empty Content node will now result in a full output of the tag. If you want to get a collapsed output, you can use the property Conditional Output on the content. You can use the Conditional Output on the element to prevent the tag from being shown.
ZUGFeRD
ZUGFeRD PDFs are not supported anymore. The XML part can be handled by the module, but extracting and generating PDFs isn’t available anymore.